Generation Y or the Millennials are often put in the dock for being immersed in their gadgets, lacking in social skills, being self-centred, cynical, unaccustomed to hard work and not caring about social causes. But an emerging group of youngsters prove that they do have their heart in the right place and use the virtual world of bits and bytes to mobilise volunteers and funds for social causes. The very gadgets they seem to be addicted to have turned to indispensable tools to do their bit for the oppressed and the needy sections of society. There has been an impromptu mushrooming of various groups who used the power of the social media and messenger groups like WhatsApp to communicate and propagate ideas and put them into action through relentless hard work.
Anbodu Kochi was a Facebook collective of nine friends who wanted to do their bit by way of essentials for the Chennai flood relief. The movement soon spread, thanks to the power of the social media and the group soon grew. They are now involved in cleaning the ponds in Kochi and they have a reason.
Arun P.R., one of the members of Anbodu Kochi, says, “There were more than 300 waterbodies in Chennai which were filled leading to no catchment areas to collect rainwater. We did not want any such calamity happening here and decided to clean up and restore 82 ponds in the Kochi panchayat through the Ente kulam Ernakulam initiative. The idea was suggested by the Collector of Kochi who leads through example and the group took it forward using the tools of the online media.”
Arun adds, “We have students, doctors and professionals who spare time on Sundays and volunteer their time. We update and communicate through different WhatsApp groups and we have already cleaned 12 ponds.” College students too are actively involved in social causes. Tanz, a flash mob group formed by 65 students from five colleges in Kochi, has done four performances at different venues in Kochi to provide financial aid to orphanages as well as to individuals. They recently did a performance to support the disabled children of an orphanage in Pachalam, Kochi.
Sharon Mathew, third year B. Sc. Botany student at St. Albert's College, Ernakulam, and a member of Tanz says, “In the beginning, we did not inform the public that it was a fund-raising event. We just started dancing to the beats and while concluding, we announced the cause and got '7,000 from the crowd.” They have also collected money for an orphanage in Kaloor and for a man's treatment. Sharon adds, “Dance is the only way we know to raise money and we used it. We used the social media platform to drum up support and aid.”
Eighteen batchmates of NSS College created a WhatsApp group Help to Save to collect funds for the Chennai floods. Manoj, a CA working in Chennai, says, “We already had a college group and had been thinking of doing some charity and thought the floods were a good time to begin. Members pooled in their own money to amass '1.5 lakh, which was handed over to an NGO. The success of this has egged us on and we have decided to pool in a sum every month to help one needy person.”
Eighteen techies in Info Park working for Rapid Valley united to paint and exhibit their paintings. Melvin Thambi, Design head, says, “We gave the proceeds of the exhibition to mentally-challenged people. We have an internal group called Happy Hands which does charity work and we intend to mobilize all the designers in Info park to create a bigger event.” Shambhu Sajith is a film maker who along with three other like- minded friends Anjali, Aswani and Adarsh makes films about social ills that plague the society. Shambhu mentions, “We schoolmates conducted a walkathon to create awareness on violence against women. I also direct short films that talk about alcohol abuse, LGBT and blood cancer and conduct awareness classes for women.Our short films are propagated through WhatsApp and we use the social medium to regularly update our activities.” The short films are made using the members' own money and the actors and crew are all in-house.
